RYAN PYETTE, QMI AGENCY

SHAWINIGAN, QUE. - In the middle of the night last August in Lake Placid, N.Y., Olli Maatta piled his hockey gear and a couple suitcases into the back of a Honda Pilot.

This is how the impressive London Knights defenceman's junior hockey career started -- a long way from Finland and facing an eight-hour drive to London, Ont., with Dale Hunter, the president and then-head coach of the OHL team, and assistant GM Misha Donskov, two men he barely knew.

"It was a little awkward at the start," the 17-year-old from Maatta said, "but it got better as we went. We talked about hockey. It was a long trip. I was excited to get to London and get started (in the Canadian Hockey League)."

Eight months later, he's still playing.

Maatta arrived at the Memorial Cup in Shawinigan this week, not in the Hunter Honda, but on a private jet into Trois-Rivieres. The way he has progressed this season, he better get used to travelling in style.

The hockey scouting services and hired-gun bird dogs haven't reached a consensus on where Maatta, a definite first-rounder, actually slots into next month's NHL draft. London GM and head coach Mark Hunter is a little more black-and-white.

"He's a top 10," Hunter said. "Olli's in the top 10.

"He could get up to be picked No. 1 overall."

Hunter isn't kidding.

The popular notion is the Edmonton Oilers will take Sarnia's Nail Yakupov or top-ranked defenceman Ryan Murray first in Pittsburgh. But there's a case to be made for Maatta.

Everyone's starting to wonder where this kid's ceiling will finally settle. He only scored five goals and 32 points in the regular season, but in helping settle down the team's power play, racked up six goals and 23 points in only 19 playoff games.

"The offensive part of his game has taken off," Mark Hunter said. "He's big and strong, he plays both ends of the ice.

"He's been super in the second half."

Last summer, the Hunters traded up to take him first overall in the CHL import draft, ahead of skilled Russian forward Mikhail Grigorenko, who had 40 goals and 85 points with Patrick Roy's Quebec Remparts this season.

Dale Hunter made it clear the Knights, who won a Memorial Cup in 2005 without an overseas player, had to have Maatta.

He is the youngest player ever to make Finland's world junior roster, though his second go-round at the last tournament in Alberta was cut short after the first game when he was run over by Canada's Boone Jenner and suffered a concussion.

This Memorial Cup tournament is one last chance to go under the microscope. Every NHL GM will be keeping tabs and the 6-foot-2, 198-pounder has the pre-draft stage nearly to himself, save for Edmonton Oil Kings' splendid defenceman Griffin Reinhart, son of former NHLer Paul.

"That's not what I'm thinking about," Maatta said. "I'm here for one reason and that's to help this team win the Memorial Cup. I'm not worried about anything else. We've done a good job so far winning the OHL title, but we have one more to go and that's all we're focused on.

"Anything else is not important."

The blueliner, in many ways, personifies this London team. Mark Hunter said, during the OHL playoffs, he was "starving" to talk about Maatta.

Right now in Shawinigan, the focus is on the defending champion Saint John Sea Dogs, the favourite, and the host Cataractes, who haven't played in a month.

The Knights, who open Saturday against the powerhouse Sea Dogs, know they have to shove their way into the Cup spotlight.

That's not the case back home at the Maatta house in Jyvaskyla, though.

"They'll be up (at 3 a.m.) watching every game," Maatta said with a grin.

That's what time his Knights odyssey started.

Where it leads for him -- to No. 1 or simply top 10 in the draft -- is wait and see.